Lottery Boy (31 page)

Eventually word would get round where the half-a-millionaire boy was living now. Words were free and the price of a second-class stamp was less than 59 pence, and those letters would start arriving soon just three houses in from the corner of Swain’s Lane.

But not today. Just bills by the look of the brown envelopes and he would pay those for John and Rosie when he got his money or maybe before then. All their bills for everything, for ever.

He decided he
was
going to go to school. For the morning at least, to sign in. He didn’t want other letters turning up here saying he was bunking off. So he made sure Jacky had plenty of food and water and reminded himself that Mrs Avery was coming round in a couple of hours and she
knew
about dogs. He grabbed his blazer and shoved it in his bag, ready to put it on as he went into tutor late. He shut the door and walked away from the house and then turned round as if to check it was still there.

He looked up to his room, right at the top in the roof of the house, the little square of glass divided into four. It looked a
little
bit like a prison cell from where he was but it didn’t feel like a prison any more. Not now. It just felt like somewhere he was living, this place with his new … friends. A big old question mark in his heart, he couldn’t quite bring himself to use the
f
word yet.

He thought he heard Jacky barking from the kitchen then, and he took a step back, and another, and then thought about going back.

But he stopped in his tracks because he knew Jacky didn’t act like a baby when he was gone. She knew he was going to come back. She was trained. It was what you did with dogs; you trained them to trust you.

And making up for lost time, Bully got a move on, cold without his blazer, jogging up the hill, because school was on the other side.

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There was once a primary school teacher (so the story goes) who every year somehow managed to get the children in her class to paint and draw the most beautiful pictures in the school. When she was asked what her secret was, she said that she took the pictures away from the children before they finished them. Well, I have to say my experience of writing this book for children has been the exact opposite of that.

So, thank you to Zoe King, my agent, for going out on a limb and doing a whole lot more with the book than I could have ever done without her. And thank you to my editors: Gill Evans, who kept telling me to go away and do it again (but better); Lucy Earley, who really made the book sing; and Emily Damesick, who gave it a such a lovely rough polish at the end.

My thanks also to my mother and father, who worked so hard to give me a life they never had. And finally to Andrew Williams, the happiest Welshman I know and my bestest friend in the whole wide world

Michael Byrne worked as an English teacher in a secondary school just a mile from Heathrow. He then moved to Winchester to work as an airport taxi driver. The irony is not lost on him.

Michael lives with his daughter, Eve, and their cat, Chloe. He is now a full-time writer; this is his first novel.

Carnegie Medallist Frank Cottrell Boyce transports readers from the steppe of Mongolia to the streets of Liverpool in a story that is compelling, miraculous and laugh-out-loud funny.

“Funny, original and moving … a joy to read.”
Independent

“Illustrated with captivating photographs, this is a treasure in itself.”
Daily Mail

I
n a newspaper office, Paul Faustino, South America’s top sports journalist, sits opposite the man they call El Gato – the Cat – the world’s greatest goalkeeper. On the table between them stands the World Cup…

In the hours that follow, El Gato tells his incredible life story – how he, a poor logger’s son, learns to become a World Cup-winning goalkeeper. And the most remarkable part of this story is the man who teaches him – the mysterious Keeper, who haunts a football pitch at the heart of the claustrophobic forest.

“Mal Peet [takes] the football novel into a new league.”

The Guardian

“A remarkable and absorbing story with football at its heart, but superb storytelling in its soul.”

Branford Boase Award panel

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.

First published 2015 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ

Text © 2015 Michael Byrne
Cover images: Boy running © Red Edge / Anna Baria;
Chasing men © Sean Murphy / Getty Images, Inc

The right of Michael Byrne to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-4063-6387-6 (ePub)

www.walker.co.uk